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Prisoners on Prison Films

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jamie Bennett

    1. Security, Order and Counter Terrorism, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Ser, London, UK

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Victoria Knight

    1. Applied Social Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Includes a foreword by Prof. Yvonne Jewkes
  • Examines the nature of the prisoner audience and the expertise they bring to reading prison films
  • Discusses the potential research, policy and practice implications of this work

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture (PSCMC)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Introduction

    • Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight
    Pages 1-21

  3. Bronson: Power and Resistance

    • Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight
    Pages 23-38

  4. Starred Up: Prison Cultures and Personal Change

    • Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight
    Pages 39-56

  5. We Are Monster: Race in Prison

    • Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight
    Pages 57-77

  6. Screwed: Prison Work and Prison Officer Cultures

    • Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight
    Pages 79-96

  7. Everyday: Families of Prisoners and the Collateral Harms of Imprisonment

    • Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight
    Pages 97-115

  8. Conclusion

    • Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight
    Pages 117-131

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 133-134
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores how an audience of men serving sentences in an English prison responded to viewing five contemporary British prison films. It examines how media representations of prison vary in style and content, how film can influence public attitudes, and how this affects people in prison. The book explains the ways in which film acts as a power resource, presenting an ideological vision of criminal justice. The audience used these films to map the social terrain of prison, including issues of power and resistance; race and racism; corruption and the illicit economy; and staff-prisoner relationships, themes which are explored in the films screened. The authors argue that media consumption is one of the ways in which people in prison construct and maintain an ideal of the prisoner culture and what it is to be a ‘prisoner’. The book also reveals the ways in which audience members’ media choices and readings are part of the ongoing process of constructing their self-identity. This book illuminates the complex ways in which media consumption is an integral part of social power, cultural formation and identity construction. Recognising and engaging with audiencehood offers one potential route for supporting more progressive penal practice. This book speaks to those interested in prisons, crime, media and culture, and film studies.

Reviews

“This book is an exciting read, not only for its remarkable content but because of the opportunities for future research. … This study is clearly limited by time, number and type of participants, but these limitations do not prevent the study from breaking new ground in an innovative area, allowing imprisoned people to return and refute the voyeuristic cinematic gaze.” (Holly Dempsey, Crime Media Culture, April 12, 2021)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Security, Order and Counter Terrorism, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Ser, London, UK

    Jamie Bennett

  • Applied Social Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

    Victoria Knight

About the authors

Jamie Bennett is a Senior Civil Servant in the Ministry of Justice, UK, a Research Associate at University of Oxford, and a former prison governor. His previous publications include The Working Lives of Prison Managers (2015) and The Penal System: An introduction Sixth edition (2019).


Victoria Knight is Senior Research Fellow at De Montfort University, UK.


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